242 now to grow good fences. 



of which are growing some beech trees ; these not 

 only keep off the southern sun, hut their drip and 

 fallen leaves render fully one-eighth of the field nearly 

 useless. 



Again, do we not everywhere find twice the number 

 of hedges that are required ; and, to add to the mis- 

 chief, these filled with trees ? In many places we see 

 elms not more than three yards apart. Here the shade 

 would be intolerable, but the farmer is allowed to lop 

 them until they look not unlike the stuck-up tails of 

 French poodle dogs — a process which certainly di- 

 minishes the evils they entail upon the farmer, but 

 renders the timber comparatively useless. 



But, say the advocates of tall hedges and hedge-row 

 timber, " How beautiful they make the country look ! 

 Your plan would leave it all bare and desolate ; no song 

 of birds to cheer the wayfarer," &c. But stop, good 

 people ; we love trees, but we do not care so much for 

 straight lines of stuck-up besoms. Let the landlord 

 grow his woods and his groves, and plant his parks. 

 Let him put trees in parts which will grow nothing 

 better, and in belts to keep off malignant winds ; and 

 even here (the best places for them), let him be con- 

 tent with their pleasure and profit as a rent for the 

 ground they occupy, and not, as some do, insist upon 

 the tenant yearly planting trees in positions which must 

 injure so much land which he is still to pay rent for. 

 This is about as tyrannical as to make a schoolboy carry 

 a birch, and ask for its application. 



As regards the loss of land by the division into 

 smaller fields, we cannot do better than copy the 

 former outlines of an arable field on our own farm. 

 This, which is now one field of over fifty acres, was 



